A creepy little ficlet that was thought up and wouldn't give up nagging me.

AU in which TDW doesn't happen, because I don't give one about canon.

Also, in this AU, Odin is verifiably insane, and everyone is acutely aware of it.

Inspired by a DeviantArt. That pretty much explains it all.

Thor strode calmly into Odin's private room. It was best to do things calmly at the moment, as Odin had lately seemed... Disturbed and temperamental.

"You... You summoned me, Father?"

Odin didn't even bother to turn around as he spoke. "Yes, son. It is regarding our prisoner."

Thor promptly blinked at said person being referred to as such by their father. "Loki. Our prisoner, whose name is Loki."

Odin growled, and Thor wondered if he had opened his mouth a bit too much.

Then, as if nothing had even happened, the ruler of Asgard continued to speak. "I, as you know, have declared that Loki is to serve his sentence out in the dungeons of Svartalfheim."

Thor winced. "Yes, Father. Everyone heard your decree."

"And so you know that it cannot be undone."

Thor sighed, "Yes, Father. But of course. Your commands are final."

"Good, now we are both on the same terms."

Thor held his breath, waiting for the other metaphorical shoe to drop.

"We shall have a ceremony in which I shall officially disown the son of Laufey, and he symbolically will begin his sentence."

"Please, Father. Do refer to him as Loki. For my sake, if nothing more."

Odin turned to face his son. "Fine, then. But in order to make his sentence more meaningful to him, I have decided that we shall ensure that he tells no more lies, indeed that he never speaks a spell again."

Thor's eyebrows rose in horror. "Surely you would not subject even Loki to such a barbaric practice!"

"You question me?"

"No, Father, but... Could we not simply muzzle him, as we did in his journey here? To stitch his lips together with string is a terrible, terrible dishonor. You would shame him forever. The one who you took in as your own son."

"That is why I am not going to be the one to do it."

Thor paused. It would be best to proceed with utmost caution. "I see... Heimdall, then? To be abandoned by the Gatekeeper is an equally terrible fate."

"No. You."

Thor blinked. "ME? Father, why me?"

"As I said, to drive the fact that he has been disowned even further into his mind. To be shamed as such by his own brother-"

"Which is exactly why I refuse to do it. I will publicly say that I disown him. I will not stitch his mouth closed... That is a barbaric practice that died out centuries ago, and deserves to stay dead!"

Odin glared at him. "I trust you will make the right decision Son, when the time comes. Especially since I officially command you to, as the ruler of Asgard."

Thor fought back tears. To cry in front of his Father at this time would be humiliating. And over what Odin considered to be a mere Frost Giant.

"I... Will think about it. And you shall have my decision come tomorrow."

"Good. Now, leave me to think on my own."

Thor quickly departed.

Frigga slowly approached her husband. "Odin, do you think that... Perhaps that was a bit cruel?"

"To a Frost Giant? Certainly not. We used to do it daily to their kind. It is no different now."

"To Loki, yes- but more so to Thor. He is your son, after all. To force him to do such to the one he called 'Brother'. Do you think it was harsh?"

"Absolutely not. Thor must learn to do certain things he would rather not, for the sake of Asgard."

Frigga slowly turned and began to walk away. She paused mid-step to say quietly, "For Asgard, or for you?"

Later, elsewhere...

"Thank you, guards. I am forever in your debt." Thor was here. Loki could live with that. Because no one in their right mind would be eager to get to the dungeons of Svartalfheim. The longer he stayed here, the better. Of course, the fact that Thor was here made no difference as to the time of his departure, but nonetheless.

Loki heard the watchman mumble something to the effect of not letting Odin know.

"Brother, how are you today?"

"Faring as well as is to be expected, thank you for asking, Thor." Loki calmly stood up, and walked to the barrier. "But you're troubled. I know that look. What did Odin do now?"

Thor didn't speak for a long while, only stood there, looking regretfully at him. It made him uncomfortable.

"Well? Did he move my sentence to commence sooner, or-" Loki tipped his head and gave a slight smile, hoping to get the silent, usually uproarious brother of his to speak.

"It sounds wonderful," Thor said in a whisper.

Loki, usually being one on his toes, lost a beat. "What? My leaving sooner? Well, I thought you wouldn't have been so blunt about it, but-"

"No. Your voice. It sounds... So wonderful."

It was Loki's turn to stare open mouthed at Thor.

"This conversation is turning into an extremely odd one; Thor are you feeling well?"

Thor looked close to tears. It made Loki wonder what was actually going on.

"Speak more, Loki, for I will not hear your wonderful voice for much longer. Speak of anything to me. Speak mindlessly, weave spells, anything you like, just let me hear your voice."

"Brother, you obviously are not quite yourself today- perhaps you ought to go rest-"

"Loki, Odin has commanded..."

Loki motioned for him to go on. "What? He has commanded what?"

"That I am to... That I..."

Loki harrumphed in frustration.

"I am to sew your mouth closed before the eyes of all Asgard tomorrow morning."

Sew my mouth shut? I had heard of such practices, but... Loki said nothing, but gave a slight grimace.

"I am as unhappy with the order as you are, Loki."

Said Jotunn tipped his head and smiled. "I doubt it." His eyebrows scrunched and his features softened as his expression turned to that of hopelessness.

Thor closed his eyes. He couldn't bear to see that face.

Loki shook his head slowly. "Do you have any idea what that will be like? They don't call me the Silvertongue just to be rude, rude as it is. My words are... If I can't speak... My voice is my life. I need my voice. Odin... Odin knows that."

"I asked Father if we could do something else instead, but he was adamant."

"How adamant? That can be changed, you know, with the proper diplomacy."

"Adamant enough."

"Point taken."

Loki walked over to a chair and sat stayed that way for several moments.

"I want you to know, I'm not going to do it."

"What?"

"I'm not going to do it. I am going to refuse tomorrow morning."

Loki was up and two inches from the barrier in less than a second. "HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?! Do you have any idea at all what Odin would DO to you?"

"I have faced Father's wrath before. I am prepared to do it again."

"Then you are just as insane as he; do you understand? Odin would send us both to Svartalfheim! Or worse! The All-Father would probably give you a one- way Bifrost trip to Niflheim," Loki spat.

He paused. Then he paced, thought for a moment, bit his lip lightly, and then continued.

"You have to do it."

"No, I don't."

"Yes, YOU DO," Loki shouted.

"I will not shame you so, Brother. I care about you too much."

Loki paused, choosing his words carefully.

"You say you care."

Thor tossed his arms in the air for frustration. "Of course, Brother!"

Loki tipped his head and smiled, as he always did when he was sealing some sort of deal that would end with his gaining an edge. "Then let's make a deal."

"What are the terms?"

"Your part of the deal is simple. You sew my mouth, as Odin has told you to, and when my sentence is over, you are the first one I meet when I am delivered from the hands of Svartalfheim."

Thor blinked. "You had better come up with something of equal value in return."

"I promise full compliance during your task. There will be no struggle. I shall not even move my head to stop you."

"That is not nearly enou-"

"And I shall make the utmost effort to survive my sentence, so that you will meet me on Svartalfheim, and not a corpse."

"They are not permitted to kill you, that I was aware."

Loki's brow scrunched. "Do you trust the dwarves of the prisons of Svartalfheim?"

Thor shook his head. "No. But come to think of it, I don't trust you, either."

Loki smiled. "And you shouldn't." His face changed to that of earnestness. "But if you don't now, it shall be of serious consequence... so what do you think? Willing to ally yourself with an old enemy, in order to counter the cruelty of an old friend?"

Thor's brows knit close together as he thought worriedly.

Idiot, Loki thought to himself. He has absolutely no idea of how dangerous this all is. And I had probably best keep him ignorant of it anyways. He will see soon enough, when he brings me home, what I have spared him from. That is, if he has enough sense to accept the offer. Of course, Thor's occasional Brainless Courage could strike at any moment, and that really wasn't much of a relief at all.

Thor turned away and walked out of the room without accepting nor denying Loki's offer.

Now it was Loki's turn to be worried. If Thor didn't accept... they were both just as good as dead.

Early the next morning...

Thor looked out from the balcony at the sun-drenched city. He had stood there since the dawn, and there had not been even so much as a cloud to threaten the sunshine. It was a perfect day. He scowled. The day was too perfect for the events that were to transpire. On a day like this, a family ought to go on a picnic in a grassy field, carefree and joyful. The mother shouldn't have to be weaving a spell to render her youngest child without a voice. The eldest son shouldn't be stranded in the palace, fearfully awaiting the hour that he would have to torture his younger brother. The youngest son shouldn't be held in the dungeons, awaiting the administration of aforementioned action. The father most certainly shouldn't be merrymaking in the great hall, in the exact same place where his son would be subjected to publicized shame and agony in only a few hours.

Thor hissed and whirled around to face the knocking on the door. "WHAT IS IT," he snarled at the servant.

The servant cowered in fear and timidly replied, "Sir, the king requests that you come to the feast. He says that you were not present at all during the night- he is worried about you."

"Why should he worry?" Thor spat back at the servant. "I am not hurt any more than he has inflicted upon my spirits."

"Sir?"

"Nothing."

"Well, sir- he also says that if you cannot attend, that I am to aid you in readying for the ceremony."

"I do not care about any formalities for the ceremony... Is it not that I am to deliver Loki into the hands of the dwarf jailors of Svartalfheim as soon as the ceremony is over?"

"Err... yes, sir. It is true."

"Then I shall attend the ceremony in my traveling clothes."

The servant thought about protesting, paused, and then simply answered, "Yes, sir. I shall notify Odin." He promptly left.

Thor sat down in his chair and began to silently weep.

A bit Later...

Loki was sitting against the foot of his bed (cot?), tossing some sort of ball against the barrier. It would always bounce back to him, and he would toss again. It was somewhat monotonous, but he would prefer that to the alternative. Anything would be preferable to that.

He still had not heard from Thor. In fact, they hadn't spoken at all since the meeting the afternoon before. He still didn't know what Thor's decision would be. He hoped that his brother would be sensible (was that even a word for Thor?), and wouldn't do something that everyone (EVERYONE!) would regret later.

He absently bounced the ball again, but this time, a few guards had turned off the barrier, and instead of bouncing back to him, the ball went sailing away.

Loki winced. There was only one possible answer for what was happening. He knew that they were trained for speed and little mercy, so he decided that standing would be a complete waste of precious time and energy.

One of the guards promptly pinned him to the floor, and latched a metal collar around his neck. Now, he was perfectly fine with the whole 'muzzle' thing. That made sense. At least, it somewhat made sense. But the collar? That was a problem. It didn't even block his Seidr, and it was all just for show. So that they could (of sorts) prove that they had beaten him. No free Aesir would ever permit such indignity; they would die first. He, however, was little more than a monster in their eyes, and he wasn't even Aesir, and it shouldn't have bothered him.

Of course, for all points of argument, he only had a problem with it was because they had locked it far, far too tightly today. Unlike its behavior in the previous trial, today the collar had caught a part of his flesh inside the hinge, and was somewhat constricting his airway.

The guards proceeded to lock him in all sorts of chains and lead him away. There were eight of them (fully armed, no less) to escort him, which, admittedly, he did consider a bit much. Even for him.

It also wasn't as much of leading as dragging, as he was being hauled across the floor most of the time. The collar wrenched and tore at the skin, and the blood had already begun to soak into his clothing by the time they arrived before the Great Hall. They allowed him to stand just before they entered, and proceeded at a much more leisurely pace.

Loki had been told earlier that he was to be in full dress for the ceremony, and he winced as the entire hall applauded his captivity. Loki lifted his eyes ahead, where he saw Odin sitting leisurely on the throne, with Thor on his right and Frigga on his left.

They came to a halt just before the steps to the throne. Loki smiled. He remembered fondly the time when he himself had sat there. But this time he was not on the throne. Instead, he was standing before Odin, being mockingly applauded and cursed by the crowds with derogatory names, that he daren't repeat on the pains of Holmgang.

Just when he felt as if the jeering would never stop, Odin brought the blunt end of Gungnir down upon the floor, and it resounded throughout the entire hall. Then came possibly the most stifling silence that Loki had ever beheld in his life.

Odin finally spoke. "Loki Laufeyson. In a prior session of this court, you were sentenced to the dungeons of Svartalfheim. do you deny this?"

Loki managed to rasp though his collar, "No, All-Father. I-" he paused. "I do not deny it."

"In order that you shall receive your full due punishment, I have decided to officially strip you of all former titles and privileges, in front of all of Asgard as witness."

Loki slowly sank to his knees. "Yes, All-Father," he remembered hearing himself saying."

"And now," Odin said. "The first punishment of your sentence is to take place here, before your journey to Svartalfheim. Thor?"

Thor slowly descended the stairs bearing something in his hands, that Loki could soon see was the needle and thread.

Another guard came up in front of him and pushed him, and he sprawled supine onto the hard floor.

The other five guards promptly pulled taut on the chains, rendering him spread-eagle and completely immobile.

Thor turned to face Odin. "Father, I have a demand, and only if that condition is met will I complete my task."

Loki began to stew in frustration. If you weren't going to do it, then you should have just said so before; you're going to get us both killed!

"What is it, my son?"

"Loki must be released from the chains. He must sit, not be laying on the floor."

"Very well."

Loki looked up in surprise as he was hoisted to his feet and the chains were loosened and taken away. He tenderly rubbed his wrists, which were already rubbed raw by the metal cuffs. A bench was placed down next to him, and he sat down without so much as a witty retort.

Thor dipped his head in acknowledgement to Odin, and then approached his brother.

"Well, I see you decided to go through with it, after all," Loki whispered out of earshot of everyone else.

"I just hope that we both don't live to regret it."

"Believe me, Brother, as do I." Loki paused. "Well, get on with it. The more time wasted, the longer this will take."

Loki closed his eyes as Thor made ready for the first stitch on the side of his mouth.

Thor looked down at his brother- so formal, still elegant. Still refusing to lose his dignity over such barbaric things.

Thor gritted his teeth, then quickly forced the needle down- the very first stitch. Loki's eyes flew open, and he grunted in discomfort.

Thor completed the second stitch. The third. Loki began to moan. Thor stopped and held the needle.

"Loki! You promised me!"

Loki opened his eyes to slits and gave a slight smile, one that he could manage through the stitches. "I promised compliance, brother... not noiselessness."

"I- I can't do this, Loki."

"What are you talking about?"

"Just what I said. I will not inflict such pain upon you.

Loki stared earnestly up at him. "You've got to."

"I cannot do this."

Loki nearly fell out of the chair, he leaned so far forwards. "Then you are more a coward than I thought."

"I am not!"

"Then prove it," Loki hissed. "Finish your work, Æsir!"

Thor kept going. Every so often, he would carefully wipe Loki's mouth, so as to not cause his younger brother any more harm than necessary.

Loki held up one hand, then attempted to speak. The stitches nearly held his mouth entirely shut, and the words were barely intelligible. "If... How will I know... that it is you... when... you come to rescue... me from... Svartalfheim... if they... take away my sight... and hearing, or such?"

Thor paused, and thought for a moment. "Because I will do this." He placed his hand on Loki's left shoulder, traced the edge of his right ear, and then rubbed a circle on the right side of Loki's forehead. "That is how you know it is me. And you will respond?"

Loki repeated the first two actions, but drew a 'T' on the center of Thor's forehead. "I will know... that you... are a friend."

Thor paused. " You will likely be unable to speak for the remainer of this procedure, Brother. Any parting words to Asgard?"

"Goodbye, Brother."

Frigga turned away, tears forming in her eyes.

The citizens looked on in horror.

Thor silently wept.

Loki bore the punishment with a steeled jaw.

Not even the birds dared to sing. The wind did not venture to rustle though the trees.

Only a single sound was heard in all of Asgard.

Odin laughed.

Sometime later...

"I shall miss you brother." Thor wrapped his arms tightly around Loki's slight frame.

Had it been any other circumstances, Loki would have dismissed such actions as sentiment. This time, however, the gesture was welcome, and Loki leaned into the embrace.

There was so much Loki had wanted to say, and couldn't. He didn't blame Thor. Of course he didn't blame Thor. He blamed Odin. He wished he could tell Thor that. So that Thor wouldn't worry.

A single tear escaped Loki's eye. I shall miss you too, Brother. Truly.

They were rudely interrupted by an ill-mannered dwarf, who began to rattle the chains that were locked to Loki's wrists and ankles.

"Alright, enough with all this. You've said your goodbyes." The dwarf guards promptly yanked on the chains, which caused Loki to tip over onto his side. They began to drag him away.

Loki struggled, only to scratch his face badly on the volcanic gravel. Thor winced at the sight of fresh blood staining his brother's pale skin.

Thor watched as the dwarves paused to open the gigantic doors in the side of the cliff. Loki had taken the chance to stand up, but it wasn't too long before the dwarves began to move again.

Just before he went inside, Loki turned. Thor shouted, "Fear not, Brother! Darkness always precedes the dawn, but the dawn will arrive! Await the dawn!"

Loki smiled at Thor, just before the massive granite doors closed with a final, deafening BOOM.

Thor winced, then turned away. He walked on in that direction for about ten minutes, until he came to a circular inscription on the ground.

"Hiemdall! Open the Birfrost!"

He was rapidly bathed in pure energy, and in a moment he was back on Asgard.

"Welcome back, Prince."

"The next time I travel on the Bifrost, Heimdall, it shall be to free my brother."

"An oath, easily made, not easily kept. I would not say such things, my liege, under the watchful eyes of Vár and the Norns."

"Then perhaps it is an unofficial promise."

Heimdall said nothing as Thor strode out of the observatory.

After Thor had mounted his horse, and ridden away, Heimdall said in a low voice, "However, I vow that I shall watch over your brother to the during his sentence, to the best of my ability, Prince of Asgard." There was a sudden breeze of seidr, as the Norns acknowledged the pledge.

What Heimdall saw, however, he never would have the courage to tell anyone.

Wow. I wanted to write a chapter, but then it just kept going and going and going as I unwraveled more of their circumstances.

Possibly the longest single chapter of a non-oneshot ever. Anyways.

Please review.

Please excuse errors.

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